We Are What Happens When Puzzle Pieces Collide
by Bethany Tucker
Summary: What happens when Missy claims that Lucas is her boyfriend? What happens when Maya intervenes with Riley in tow? WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING IN THIS STORY? Read and find out. Not a Lucaya, a Rucas oneshot.


**Author's Note: Okay guys. I would be lying big time if I said that this was all my own doing. Alas, 'tis not. I have three incredible individuals to thank for their extreme awesomeness and help. Firstly, thank you to sugarrushreader for the amazing plot suggestion! Thanks for reading my work! I'm glad you liked it. Secondly, I'd like to thank Trouble 2076 for letting me borrow the main plot line from their story, "All because of the news". If you haven't read it yet, PLEASE DO! It's awesome. :) And last but DEFINITELY not the least,Thank you to Foxy redhead, whom is like my Beta reader and best friend all rolled up into one. She helped me with grammatical errors as well as writing the ending. She is so amazing. :D So thank yous bigger than the size of Wisconsin go out to all of them. I hope that you like the story! :) Please review!**

**xoxoxo, Bethany**

The hallways of John Quincy Adams middle school were buzzing with excitement. Today, the school paper was hiring new reporters and journalists and whichever three students had the best story, got to become a reporter. Many of the students were excited and did lots of odd crazy things to be noticed by these writer wannabes. They hoped to make it in the school paper.

"Lucas," Riley greeted Lucas, like she had pretty much since she'd met him.

"Riley," Lucas returned with a smile.

It had been three years since they'd met. They were sixteen. It was the end of the first day of eleventh grade.

Riley had liked Lucas from the first day she met him, but since then, her feelings had deepened, become more serious.

Lucas had always been friends with Riley, but he had also wanted to be more than friends for a while now.

Neither knew that the other liked them back.

Maya rolled her eyes at this pathetic exchange of greetings, but remained silent. Riley had told her that she liked Lucas multiple times and she knew from Farkle that Lucas felt the same way towards Riley.

Maya sneaked up behind Lucas and pulled out a piece of paper, that read in bold letters: **Oh my gosh! Just TELL him you like him!**

Riley read the sign and blushed bright pink. Lucas turned around just as Maya had tucked the sign back into her bag.

Suddenly, a blur of an ugly shade of pink shot by. Missy.

Missy latched onto Lucas's arm and smiled wide for a nearby camera.

"That's great!" The photographer said. The girl standing next to the boy with the camera bobbed her head.

She was tall and had long curly red hair. She was holding a notebook and was wearing a hat with a tag that read 'Press'. She grinned.

"Now how about an interview for the school paper with the couple?" The young journalist asked.

Lucas's face went pale.

"Uh, um, I-" He stammered.

"What's the matter, Boyfriend?" Missy purred.

The journalist looked confused.

"Are we going to do an interview, Mr. Friar, or not?"

Maya jumped in.

"Yes he is," She said calmly.

The whole hallway seemed to go silent. Nearly everybody in the school who knew Lucas and Riley shipped them. (AN: Shipped means wanted them to be a couple, to sum it up. There's more to it, but that's not important.) A handful of people shipped Maya and Lucas, but realized that it probably would never happen.

Lucas gaped at Maya, his mouth slightly open. Riley just looked down at the floor.

"My eyes see my shoes..." She muttered quietly.

"But not with Missy. She's not his girlfriend," Maya continued, smirking at Missy.

Missy's face went bright red and she scowled at Maya.

"Oh, and I suppose YOU are?" She asked, glaring.

Maya started laughing.

She laughed so hard she actually had tears streaming down her face.

"M-m-me and Cowboy?!" She actually snorted a little. "Oh-OH! Oh no. Oh gosh, never in a million years will THAT ever happen. No."

Maya grabbed Riley's wrist and pulled her over to the group. She put Riley's hand in Lucas's, brushing Missy off of him. Riley and Lucas were both surprised at how normal and comfortable this gesture felt and didn't pull away.

"RILEY is Lucas's girlfriend," she said, giggling still, wiping away tears. "You can do an interview with THEM."

Riley blushed a shade of red, SO RED that it was nearly purple. Lucas's face went red as well. Not quite as much as Riley, but red nonetheless.

The journalist nodded again, approvingly.

"I DO like the couple name Rucas instead of Mucas. Mucus just sounds... gross. Okay. If you'll just follow me, we can get started on the interview!"

"Bu-but Bethany!" Missy whined. "You said that we would do an interview! About Lucas and me!"

The reporter, Bethany, shrugged.

"YOU said that you were a couple. I'm not going to write about something that isn't even remotely true. Sorry," she said, ushering Riley and Lucas into an empty classroom.

"Okay. My name is Bethany Tucker," Bethany said, closing the door behind her. "I'm turning on a recorder so later I'll be able to write down whatever is said. Is that alright?"

Riley was silent. Lucas just nodded. Both were shocked. They were still holding hands.

"Awww, y'all are just too cute," Bethany said, laughing to herself.

"Uh, thanks?" Lucas says, unsure of what to say. On one hand, he was happy that he was holding Riley's hand and that he had been saved from Missy, but on the other, he and Riley weren't exactly an official couple, at least not yet anyways. He felt like he was lying.

He looked at Riley. She glanced at him and smiled shyly. He smiled back.

"So, how long have you known each other and how long have you been a couple?"

"Um, we've known each other since the first day of seventh grade, and we aren't a couple," Lucas replied. "Maya was saying that so that Missy would leave me alone."

Bethany looked at them, confused.

"Then why are you holding hands?" She asked them, her eyebrow raised.

Riley let go of his hand.

"We weren't...?" Riley tried.

Bethany gave her a look. A look that clearly said 'SERIOUSLY?'

Riley turned red. If this kept up, she would probably be permanently red for the rest of her life...

"Uh, okay. Do you think, maybe, you could pretend to be? For my story? I really want to be a professional writer! An author. Please?" Bethany asked them, her sea green eyes pleading.

Riley took one look at this girl's begging face, and immediately answered, "Okay."

She always wanted to help people. It was a blessing and a curse.

Lucas looked like he was about to protest, but he didn't.

The reporter looked relieved.

"Okay. How did you meet?" Bethany asked.

Lucas started laughing, and Riley giggled and turned pink.

"Well, it's quite the story actually. You see..."

They told her about the subway, and how EXACTLY they had met.

Bethany laughed.

"Oh, wow! That is the sweetest thing ever! It's hilarious!"

"Yup," Lucas and Riley said in unison.

This made the girl laugh even harder.

"Do you have any other experiences that you feel comfortable sharing?" She asked them.

"There was this other time, when Missy asked me out and Riley accidentally put her finger in my nose..." Lucas said, causing Riley to hide her face behind her hands, giggling.

He told the rest of the story, remembering all the adventures they had together.

They stayed there in that classroom, for nearly two hours, after school was over.

Finally, Bethany asked, "Are there any more? The paper is going to LOVE this! I know I do!"

Riley thought for a minute.

"There is ONE more story...," She said, looking at Lucas. He raised an eyebrow.

She leaned over and whispered in his ear, "_Remember the elections for seventh grade president?"_

Lucas nodded and smiled. Of course he remembered that moment. It was the first time he had realized that he liked Riley as more than a friend.

"In seventh grade, Riley, Farkle, and I ran for seventh grade president," Lucas began.

Bethany nodded.

"You won that year," she said, taking notes.

Lucas grinned and nodded.

"Things were getting pretty ugly and it was tearing our friendship apart," Lucas explained. "Then, Riley and Maya did something amazing. They helped ME win. Later, after the elections, I asked Farkle to be vice president and Maya to be secretary of state. Riley asked me what she was to me."

Riley interrupted.

"And he whistled for my 'unicorn', and then he rode it over to me and helped me on. After that he told me that to him, I was a princess," She said.

Lucas smiled at her.

"You still are," he said.

Riley blushed and smiled back.

'Boy this day is just FULL of blushing.' She thought.

"AWWWWWW! You guys would be such a cute couple!" Bethany squealed. "Thank you so much! This is going to be an AWESOME story!"

And with that, she skipped out, clutching her notebook and pens.

There was a moment of comfortable silence.

"So..." Riley trailed off.

"So...what?" Lucas asked.

"Do you think that she's right? That we would be a cute couple?" Riley asked.

Lucas was quiet a moment, unsure of what to say.

"What do you think?" He finally asked her.

Riley swallowed hard.

"Well, I think that we would be a kinda cute couple, whatever 'cute' in this context means." She paused.

"Do you WANT to be a couple?" She asked him.

Lucas shook off the awkwardness of the whole ordeal and answered honestly.

"Yeah. Actually, I do. I've wanted to be since that moment on the horse. What do you think?"

Riley didn't miss a beat and she answered, "I think you should kiss me," She said, looking him straight in the eye.

Lucas was shocked. "Hmm, I don't know... I could get in trouble with your dad..." He said teasingly.

"Eh. He can wait," She said, leaning closer to him. It was probably the most rebellious thing she had ever said or done.

Lucas grinned and leaned in, "Okay," he whispered and then brushed his lips against hers.

"So what are we now?" Riley asked, after having pulled away.

"We are nothing and we are everything. We are simply a speck of dust, if that, in this great and powerful universe. We are what happens when two puzzle pieces collide. We are us. We are simply us," He answered, poetically.

Riley smiled dorkily.

"I meant, are we BF and GF now?" She asked him.

"Oh, is that what you meant?" He laughed. "Then yes. Yes we are."

"Then maybe we should redo that interview, as a couple this time," Riley suggested.

Lucas smiled and gripping Riley's hand, pulled her towards the open door.

"HEY BETHANY!" They shouted.

Boy, this was quite the story, all by itself.

"You know Lucas?" Riley said. "I love a good love story, but I think ours is my favorite."

Lucas smiled and kissed her once more on the forehead.

"Mine too," He said.

The end.

**Author's Note: So... What do you think? You like? Please leave me a review on the way out! **

**Your reading buddy,**

**Bethany**


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